Secretary of State General Colin Powell spoke before the United Nations Security Council yesterday. He made the case for a first-strike attack on Iraq, by presenting satellite photographs, tapes of intercepted conversations between Iraqi military officers, and information from Iraqi defectors and people seized in Afghanistan and elsewhere since September 11.

Secretary of State General Colin Powell addresses the United Nations Security Council today. He will try to make the case for a first strike attack on Iraq. We hear excerpts of an exclusive interview with Saddam Hussein by former British Labour parlimentarian Tony Benn.

*French President Jacques Chirac refused to bow to British and US pressure, declaring in a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair that war is the "worst possible solution," and calling for UN weapons inspectors to be allowed to continue their work. Blair has been feverishly trying to persuade Security Council members to back a US attack. The Financial Times reports if the UN Security Council does not...

In a pair of reports to the United Nations Security Council, the chief weapons inspectors reported that Iraq has failed to fully cooperate. But they said there is no new evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Chief nuclear inspector Mohamed El Baradei is requesting inspectors be given several more months to complete their work.

As the Bush administration gears up for war against Iraq, artists and musicians are taking a more prominent role in giving voice to antiwar sentiments throughout the world. There will be a massive anti-war rally tomorrow, January 18th, in Washington, D.C. If the rally of October 26th is any indication, hundreds of thousands of people will come from around the country and the world to say, "Not in Our Name."

Today is the deadline for thousands of men from mostly Muslim countries to undergo 'special registration' by the Immigration and Naturalization Service under the controversial new National Security Entry-Exit Registration System.

Immigration lawyers have estimated that between 500and 2,500 Middle Eastern immigrants have been detainedin California since last week. That is when male visaholders ages 16 and older from Iran, Iraq, Libya,Sudan and Syria were asked to report to immigrationoffices to be fingerprinted and photographed.